Talking with my grandfather over Thanksgiving break showed me just how out of touch people who rarely use the Internet can be. Now, my grandpa is pretty progressive and well-informed, but he only looks up movie times in a physical newspaper and told me I should rent a DVD from the library to watch a movie he recommended to me. I know that I will be in his place someday, but it’s still kind of frustrating. And we all know Baby Boomers aren’t the most skilled Internet users.
But what about us millennials, who are Internet savvy? We, according to NPR, are consistently still tricked by fake news and naitve advertising. We seem to take most of what we see on the Internet at face value, despite knowing that anyone can post anything that they want. Most Internet users don’t look at the source of where information comes from but just what the information is. But, this obviously isn’t enough. We need to be aware of the context of the information, and the biases that could be behind it, so that we don’t spread information that could be harmful or even blatantly wrong.
The old “McDonald’s nuggets are made from pink slime” rumor is still going around, despite being proven to be false. Fake news was a prevalent part of the recent election, which was mostly spread on Facebook, and now is being called a “crisis.” With the ability to distinguish between what was real news and what wasn’t, people might have made a different decision.
Varying sources, opinions and explanations are needed and important, but only when they are founded on something real. These fake news articles that were spread around were created to fear-monger and influence people on both the left and the right.
But, not everything is subtly manipulative, I’ve seen multiple infographics spread around telling people how to make floor cleaner at home, but if anyone actually tried to follow the instructions, they would end up making a truly dangerous chemical. The Clown Phenomenon this year was mostly perpetuated by false claims because it’s easy to lie on the Internet.
It’s time for everyone to start checking multiple sources as well as taking opinion pieces with a grain of salt. If a statistic is used, glance at the study that was used to find it. When so much information is available, it’s our job to sort through the garbage and find what is correct, what is mostly correct and what looks correct but is blatantly wrong. We make fun of our grandparents because they can’t use the Internet, but it’s time to put our money where our mouth is and look at the Internet with a critical eye.
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